Tobey Maguire to Produce and Star in Robotech Live-Action Movie

Okay, maybe saying Tobey Maguire will produce AND star is a bit premature, but Maguire WILL produce, that much we know for sure, the upcoming Robotech live-action movie for Warner Bros., who just finished securing the movie rights to the Japanese anime series and has handed it over to Spider-Man himself. Obviously if Maguire is smart, he’ll put himself in the pilot chair of one of those giant robot mechas, because this thing is going to be HUGE. If you thought “Transformers” was a big deal, how about an army of jets that can transform into giant robots with huge friggin’ laser cannons battling it out with big ass aliens? That’s Robotech!

After a lengthy negotiation, Warner Bros. Pictures has picked up the rights to bring anime classic “Robotech,” which featured giant robots known as mechas, to the big screen. Maguire is producing through his Maguire Entertainment banner and is eyeing the lead role in what the studio plans on being a tentpole sci-fi franchise.

“We are very excited to bring ‘Robotech’ to the big screen,” Maguire said. “There is a rich mythology that will be a great foundation for a sophisticated, smart and entertaining film.”

Drew Crevello also is producing through his Supercool Hollywood BigTime Prods. Craig Zahler (“The Brigands of Rattleborge”) has been tapped to write the screenplay.

Very, very cool. I loved this series when I was a kid, and no doubt the CGI advances in “Transformers” made transforming jets and robots possible for “Robotech”.

Within the combined and edited story, Robotechnology refers to the scientific advances discovered in an alien starship that crashed on a South Pacific island. With this technology, Earth developed giant robotic machines or mecha (many of which were capable of transforming into vehicles) to fight three successive extraterrestrial invasions.

[The storyline spans] three generations, as mankind must fight three destructive Robotech Wars in succession over a powerful energy source called “Protoculture”:

* The First Robotech War (The Macross Saga) concerns humanity’s battle against the Zentraedi, a race of giant warriors who are sent to earth to retrieve the flagship of the Robotech Master Zor. The ship contains the last known source of Protoculture in the universe.

* The Second Robotech War (The Masters) begins when the creators of the Zentraedi, the Robotech Masters, attempt to take up where the Zentraedi left off, and capture the protoculture held within the remains of the SDF-1.

* The Third Robotech War (The New Generation) occurs after the alien Invid have been alerted to the existence of Protoculture on Earth by events that transpired at the end of the Second Robotech War. The planet is conquered, then enslaved, and it is up to the Robotech Expeditionary Force to retake their ancestral homeland.